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In The Spotlight

Campaign Finance Bibliography

Elections Across the Pond: Comparing Campaign Finance Regimes in the United States and the United Kingdom

Type

Journal

Citation

Hunker, K. (2013). Elections Across the Pond: Comparing Campaign Finance Regimes in the United States and the United Kingdom. Harv. JL & Pub. Pol'y, 36, 1099-1245.

Abstract

The article examines campaign finance regulations in two distinct political systems, the United States and the United Kingdom, and fleshes out how ‘constitutionalism’ — defined as the commitment to institutional arrangements that limit government authority — affects public efforts to curtail money in elections. Specifically, it looks at how the constitutional arrangements of the United States and the United Kingdom either facilitate or frustrate the ability of public bodies to enact prevailing public opinions on whether the nation’s underlying principles favor unrestrained political liberty or a level of political equality beyond the simple contours of one-man-one-vote. Moreover, the article compares the presumption each nation makes regarding their legislature’s trustworthiness and how that presumption impacts the intensity of their constitution’s law-based principles. The article concludes that legislature’s discretion in campaign finance reform does not necessarily reflect the existence of ‘constitutionalism’ but rather the level of trust shared between the various constitutional actors.